1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to network-based phone systems. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to distributing functions that are conventionally centralized and require separate hardware servers, such as auto-attendant services, to user endpoints.
2. Description of the Related Art
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology has evolved to the point that network telephone systems can provide feature-rich services that rival or surpass those provided by conventional (analog) telephone systems. Examples of such features include call forwarding, voicemail and auto-attendant services (e.g., where a voice leads a caller through a set of menus via voice or touch-tone commands).
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network telephone system 100 that provides conventional centralized auto-attendant services. As illustrated, the system 100 includes a series of end units 1101-1104 (collectively end units 110), such as telephones, connected to a network hub 120. Calls received via an interface 150, which may be any combination of a wide area network (WAN) and/or circuit switched network, are routed to the end units 110 by a call distributor 130.
The call distributor 130 may maintain a list of ID numbers (or routing table) associated with the different end units 110 that allows the call distributor to route incoming calls to their targeted end units. In the illustrated example, each of the end units 1101-1104 has an associated user voice ID #210-213, respectively, which may each correspond to a phone number in the routing table. Thus, when a call comes in for a dialed phone number corresponding to ID#210, the call distributor 130 may route this call to end unit 1101. The call distributor 130 may implement other routing features, such as call forwarding and voicemail, in the event an end unit targeted by a call is unavailable (busy or unregistered/unplugged).
The call distributor 130 may also be configured to route auto-attendant calls (identified by the dialed number) for proper handling. Typically, auto-attendant calls are received on the same number and, as illustrated in FIG. 1, are handled by a single separate server 140. This centralized approach has a number of disadvantages. One disadvantage is that an additional server 140 for the auto-attendant service increases system cost and complexity. Another disadvantage is a lack of redundancy. If the server 140 (or auto-attendant application running on the server 140) goes down for any reason, or the server 140 becomes too busy with calls, auto-attendant functionality is lost.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved approach to providing functions to network telephone systems such as an auto-attendant, for example, that does not require a separate server.